Hi,
Just thought I would share a mod that I have recently finished that has pretty much stopped all the mode start ball rejects on IJ. So far it has worked flawlessly with only 1 or 2 rejections in many many shots. The rejections have happened from slamming it in as hard as i possibly could.
Not shown in the photos are washers that should be installed under the springs to prevent the springs from winding and working their way through the flap, as the holes in the flap are quite large.
The principle behind the springs is that when the ball slams into the ball stop flap, inertia from the moving ball is absorbed by the springs acting on the metal flap which is allowed to pivot back and slightly up. This deadens the movement of the ball instantly and stops it from bouncing out.
However as a result the upward movement of the flap, it rubs on the underside of the plastic that surrounds this area. To combat this problem I have currently raised the plastic with washers to prevent it touching. Another alternative to prevent the rubbing problem would be to reduce the height of the flap by grinding or cutting it down in size a bit. When I get around to installing a new plastic to replace my already broken plastic surround I think I will end up doing this as I don’t believe it needs to be as big/high as it currently is anyway.
What are your thoughts long term, will it continue to work? What could possibly go wrong?

46D61A4B-192C-49B8-B2D7-BF94E21BA785 (resized).png

972F8BE0-70D2-4253-AA32-B0D77D5AE530 (resized).png

A1E8D8FE-6BD2-4B23-8E73-C2BF99F0F820 (resized).png

The screws are long and are tight in the playfield but as you say over time with constant beating they may work loose. There is a reasonable amount of tension created by the springs that prevents the metal stop from flailing around, it ends up being quite a crisp and snappy action. I have a couple of videos that ill try and post so you can see it in action.

Lets see how this works!

Another couple of videos to show the operation.

The screws are a standard #6 x 1” sheet metal screw. #4106-01115-16
The springs I had lying around from a spring kit I bought some 25 years ago!
The washers, not shown but highly recommended are something like the #4700-00090-00 from MarcoSpecialties.

Thanks mate. At the back of the metal bracket I have glued a piece of plastic wire insulation to help prevent the bracket digging in, also acts as a bit of a pivot point too. I’ll keep an eye on it and I may end up installing a Cliffy protector there.

Do my best to report back in 6 months, will put it in my calander!

A picture tells says a 1000 words, here’s 2000!
I’m at work at the moment and not home for a couple of days so might have to wait for exact measurements. They are definitely not a pinball spring though, as I mentioned earlier they are from a spring kit.

D3EA460A-0D15-46F0-A56F-9CEF67451DDA (resized).png

pasted_image (resized).jpeg